DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Green Belt Statistics

Keith Hill: In 2000, the Government published figures on the area of land designated as green belt in England, based on figures in plans that had been adopted by 1997. I am pleased to announce today the publication of statistics that show changes to the amount of green belt since then. In future, such figures will be published on an annual basis, and will be used to monitor the Government's target to maintain or increase the amount of green belt in each region.
	The statistics show that since 1997 there has been an increase of around 25,000 hectares in the amount of green belt identified in adopted local and unitary development plans in England. In addition, there are proposals for an additional 12,000 hectares of green belt that are currently being taken forward in plans that have not yet reached adoption. This figure does not include changes to the green belt proposed in the New Forest, where land will be re-designated from green belt to national park once the national park has been formally designated. This comprises some 46,000 hectares of land in the area covered by New Forest district council. In view of this re-designation, the Government does not intend that these figures should be included in monitoring progress towards its target of maintaining or increasing the amount of green belt in each region.
	Copies of the statistical release are available in the Libraries of both Houses.

High Hedges

Yvette Cooper: We have today launched a public consultation on implementing Part 8 of the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003 in England. This gives local authorities the powers to deal with complaints about high hedges that are having an adverse affect on a neighbour's amenity.
	We are seeking views on draft regulations covering certain procedural details such as the fees that authorities should charge for this service and how appeals against their decisions should be dealt with. We are also seeking views on the draft guidance on how local authorities should administer the complaints system. This offers advice on how authorities should assess whether a hedge is having an adverse affect on a neighbour's amenity. Copies of the consultation paper and the draft guidance have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	The consultation papers have been sent to local authorities in England, specialist and other interested organisations. They have also been published on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's web site www.odpm.gov.uk. The closing date for responses is 30 June 2004.
	This is another step towards tackling the misery that can be caused by high hedges and we are on course to have the system fully operational towards the end of this year.

TREASURY

Civil Registration Review

Ruth Kelly: The House will wish to be aware of developments on the Government's plans for modernising civil registration.
	On 10 July 2003 the Government published the consultation paper "Civil Registration: Delivering Vital Change". This set out our proposals to reform civil registration in England and Wales using powers in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. The proposed changes will make it easier both for citizens to deal with Government at key points in their lives and in the lives of their families and for the Government to modernise this public service by exploiting improved information and communication technology. I am pleased to be able to tell the House that there were almost 3,400 responses to the consultation document. This indicates the very real interest amongst a wide range of stakeholders—registration practitioners and managers, the public and other interested organisations—in this area of reform.
	Our intention was to introduce a regulatory reform order in this Session of Parliament. This remains the case in respect of provisions relating to registration of births and deaths and access to birth and death records. I have however decided to postpone the presentation of provisions relating to marriage till early in the next Session. The splitting of the proposals in this way will ensure that the momentum for reform is sustained whilst, at the same time, providing an opportunity for the second regulatory reform order to take account of Parliament's wishes on the civil partnership legislation.
	This strategy will not hinder the Government's plans for implementation that will begin in 2005 with improved information technology to forward registration information to the Registrar General and the structural reform of the local registration service.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Government Co-operation Faith Communities

Fiona Mactaggart: Today my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary and I launched "Working Together—Co-operation between Government and Faith Communities". The report is aimed at Government Departments and faith communities and includes recommendations on what each can do to engage more effectively in partnership working together.
	The report is the result of a wide-ranging cross-Government review, led by the Home Office, involving Ministers, officials and senior faith community representatives working in partnership together. To ensure the report's recommendations are being acted on and progressed, review members will reconvene in a year to evaluate the impact of the review.
	The report is entitled "Working Together: Co-operation between Government and Faith Communities". Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, and may be obtained from the Faith Communities Unit in my Department or through the Home Office website.

Special Branch

David Blunkett: Following a recommendation made by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary in his report on special branch and ports policing in January 2003, I am today publishing redrafted guidelines for special branch work in the United Kingdom.
	They have been redrafted in partnership with the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Office. We have consulted fully with all interested parties, including the Association of Chief Police Officers, the National Co-ordinator of Special Branch, the National Co-ordinator of Ports Policing and the Security Service.
	The new guidelines reflect that the current operational priority for special branch is counter terrorism work. They also detail the role roles and responsibilities of officers and the local, regional and national structure of special branch. They provide clarity on the work of special branch and make special branch duties more understandable and transparent.

Passport Service

Beverley Hughes: The United Kingdom Passport Service Corporate and Business plan for 2004–09 will be published tomorrow. Copies of the plan will be placed in the Library of the House.

DEFENCE

Bowman

Adam Ingram: On 19 July 2001, I informed the House that, after years of delay and forecast cost growth, we had selected a preferred supplier to take forward the BOWMAN programme. Although our approved in service date was December 2004, we set a demanding target to deliver by 30 March 2004. This target is just 30 months from the September 2001 contract awarded to General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd, a challenge unprecedented on such a major and complex acquisition project. Our priority was to deliver a secure, reliable voice communications replacement for Clansman and I am pleased to report to the House that BOWMAN has achieved its in service date on this basis, ahead of the target. This achievement and the capability it provides will enable the programme to progress to its next key milestone, the delivery of war fighting capability in 2005.
	Once fully implemented, BOWMAN will provide a secure tactical+ voice and data communications system for our land forces and selected elements of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, until at least 2025. As well as being man-portable, it will be an integral part of the communications fit of major equipments such as warships, main battle tanks and helicopters. The provision of secure voice communications down to section level represents a step-change in capability for the armed forces as they migrate from Clansman to BOWMAN. Other functions which BOWMAN is designed to deliver, such as automatic position reporting and an ability to pass digital data around the battlefield have been demonstrated in principle on field trials and their development is on course.
	At the end of 2002, nearly a year and a half into the BOWMAN contract, we extended it to further develop the battle management system and to enhance integration with systems and sensors on board our key armoured platforms—a programme known as CIP. A key advantage of aligning both programmes is that time and cost are saved through converting vehicles only once. There has been positive progress on CIP but the performance of the battle management system in recent field trials leads us to conclude that a few more months of work will be required to develop and fully demonstrate its effectiveness.
	BOWMAN will provide a marked increase in operational tempo, firepower lethality and survivability across all our armed services and will be a key enabler for the UK's network-enabled capability. There is a widespread commitment to BOWMAN across the services and industry stakeholder community and it has already demonstrated greater military capability overall than Clansman. The first brigade converted to BOWMAN will undertake a further 15 months of unit and collective performance training, and as with the programme hitherto, the brigade will be closely involved in the development and proving of BOWMAN.
	Achieving the BOWMAN in service date is an important step on the road to the ultimate goal, delivering a robust war fighting capability that fully meets the requirements of the user in service. It is a key milestone on the path to achieving war fighting operational readiness in 2005 and represents a huge success for smart acquisition as well as a big step forward for the British armed forces.

Nuclear Weapons (Safety Arrangements)

Adam Ingram: In 1992, the then Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Ronald Oxburgh, conducted a review of the safety of nuclear weapons. It was reported to Parliament House of Commons, 13 July 1992, Official Report, column 520, that he had recommended the inauguration of a safety "champion". A position entitled Nuclear Weapon Safety Adviser was subsequently created, and this has had two incumbents. More recently, further work has been done on safety management arrangements in the Department in general, and in the nuclear programmes in particular, to reflect policy and organisational developments. As a result, we have appointed a Nuclear Weapon Regulator to provide assurance about safety in the nuclear weapons programme. In so doing, it was recognised that the tasks of this official would be very similar to those of the Nuclear Weapon Safety Adviser, and it was decided that, when the regulator was ready to conduct business, the safety adviser post should close. This has recently occurred.

Regional Prime Contract (South-West)

Ivor Caplin: Debut Services (South-West) Limited, a joint venture between Babcock International Group and Bovis Lend Lease, has been awarded the regional prime contract for the Ministry of Defence's estate in the south-west. This follows successful completion of the clarification phase.
	The seven-year contract, worth in the order of £480 million, is the second in a series of five such arrangements covering the estate and will provide for capital works, property maintenance and facilities management services, throughout the south-west of England.
	The MOD has undertaken to make significant improvements in the overall condition of its estate by changing its organisational structures and introducing prime contracting methods. Encouraging innovation and efficiency, Regional Prime Contracting is a key initiative that aims to provide a better quality of service and greater value for money through suitably incentivised contracts conforming to the principles of "Smart Acquisition".

WORK AND PENSIONS

Debt Management

Chris Pond: I am today announcing that contracts have been signed with four private sector companies to provide debt collection services to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The contractors are Commercial Collections Services, Eversheds, Legal and Trade Collections and the Lewis Group.
	The contractors will provide support with two categories of debt: benefit debt and commercial debt. They will act as recovery agents, earning commission on amounts recovered and passed to DWP. The ownership of the debt will remain with DWP at all times.
	The contracts will offer support to our existing debt management operations rather than replacing or outsourcing them. There will be no job reductions in DWP as a result of this announcement. So DWP will continue to handle negotiation and civil enforcement of debts in-house. The cases transferred will be those where DWP has been unsuccessful.
	The contractors will adhere to strict contractual controls on their behaviour and DWP will put robust contract management processes in place to ensure compliance. Contractors will also have to adhere to the codes of conduct of their own supervising bodies (e.g. the Credit Services Association or the Law Society) and also the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
	Benefit debt includes overpaid benefits, where the overpayment is caused by customer error, and outstanding social fund loans. The debts transferred will be those where the debtor is not currently in receipt of a DWP benefit, they have refused to repay voluntarily and DWP has been unable to obtain full recovery. Each debtor will be given the opportunity to make an arrangement to repay their debt before their case is transferred to one of the contractors.
	DWP has a number of categories of debts owed by commercial organisations including:
	money owed by insurance companies by way of compensation for NHS costs following Road Traffic Accidents and repayment of Social Security benefits following compensation awards;
	recoupment from employment tribunal awards—where employers are required to repay social security benefits paid to employees following, for example, unfair dismissal;
	amount owed through contracts such as European social fund, training and general supplies.
	As with benefit debt, the organisations owing money will be given the opportunity to make an arrangement to repay DWP before the case is transferred to the private sector for collection.
	There are three main purposes to this exercise:
	to reduce the debts outstanding to the Department;
	to reinforce the message that debts have to be repaid, especially those that arose as a result of fraud;
	to learn from the private sector and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of DWP's Debt Management organisation.
	The contract will be for an initial two-year period to March 2006, with the possibility of extension. First cases will be transferred towards the end of April 2004 with each Contractor receiving an initial tranche of 50,000 cases. After this initial allocation there is no guarantee of additional cases being referred.

Business Plans

Andrew Smith: I am today able to announce the 2004–05 annual performance targets for three of the executive agencies of the Department for Work and Pensions: Jobcentre Plus, Child Support Agency and Appeals Service. The targets I have agreed are set out below.
	Further information on the plans of each of the businesses in 2004–05 is contained in their individual business plans which have been published today. Copies have been placed in the Library.
	Performance targets for The Pension Service, Disability and Carers Service and The Rent Service, responsibility for which transfers to my Department from 1 April 2004, will be announced in due course.
	In line with the Department's Public Service Agreement, I will also be publishing unit cost targets that will be set to ensure that Jobcentre Plus, Child Support Agency and The Pension Service continue to deliver business efficiently.
	Jobcentre Plus:
	Helping people into work 1 : to achieve a total points score of 7,295,100 based on job entry outcomes.
	Tackling fraud and error: by March 2005 to reduce losses from fraud and error in working age Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance to no more than 6.0 per cent. of the monetary value of these benefits paid during the year.
	Helping employers fill their vacancies: to ensure that at least 84 per cent. of employers placing their vacancies with Jobcentre Plus will have a positive outcome.
	Business Delivery 2 : to ensure processes are delivered efficiently, accurately and to specified standards in 89.6 per cent. of cases checked.
	Serving our customers well: to achieve an 81 per cent. customer service level in the delivery of the standards set out in the Jobcentre Plus Customer and Employer Charters.
	Child Support Agency:
	All targets refer to new scheme cases.
	Case compliance: by 31 March 2005 to be collecting child maintenance and/or arrears from 78 per cent. of all cases with a maintenance liability using the collection service.
	Cash compliance: by 31 March 2005 to be collecting 75 per cent. of child maintenance and/or arrears due to be paid through the collection service.
	Cash and case collection: to develop for introduction from 1 April 2005 individual targets for case and cash compliance to measure the collection of current maintenance separately from the collection of arrears.
	Accuracy: by 31 March 2005 accuracy on the last decision made for all maintenance calculations checked in the year to be correct to the nearest penny in at least 90 per cent. of cases.
	Customer perception: to develop and introduce a client perception target by October 2004.
	Debt: to develop and introduce a debt reduction target by October 2004.
	Appeals Service:
	The average waiting time for an appeal to be heard will be no more than 11 weeks from the time of receipt by the Appeals Service 3
	The number of cases over 20 weeks old as at 1 April 2004 will be reduced by at least 15 per cent. by 31 March 2005.
	For cases returned by the Commissioner, the average waiting time for an appeal to be re-heard will be no more than eight weeks from the date of return to the Appeals Service 4 .
	Notes
	1. This target is measured by a points score system which focuses efforts and resources on helping into work people in priority groups such as lone parents, disabled people and those in the most disadvantaged areas. For each person that Jobcentre Plus places in work it will earn a point score ranging from 12 points for, for example, a lone parent, to one point for someone who is already employed.
	2. This target measures standards of delivery of five key Jobcentre Plus business processes: Income Support accuracy, Jobseeker's Allowance accuracy, Incapacity Benefit accuracy, Labour Market Interventions, and attendance at an independent assessment to identify basic skills needs.
	3. Excludes stayed cases awaiting decision in lead cases in a higher court (the effective date will commence from withdrawal of stay being notified).
	4 . Excludes cases requiring further evidence.

Social Fund

Chris Pond: I am pleased to announce that the gross discretionary social fund budget for 2004–05 will be £689 million. This includes a further increase in net treasury funding of £10 million, which is additional to last year's extra £20 million. This means that net funding is now £30 million higher than in 2002–03, and is the second of three annual increases from a £90 million boost for the discretionary social fund announced in the autumn 2002 pre-budget report.
	After careful consideration, we have decided to allocate all the extra net funding to community care grant needs. We have therefore increased the community care grant (CCG) budget by £10 million. This is a further significant increase that will help the most vulnerable. It has been distributed so that every district benefits by an increase in their CCG budget and districts move closer to meeting the same proportion of demand nationally.
	The gross loans budget for 2004–05 will be £560 million, which represents an increase of £2 million over the April 2003 allocation. The increase is owing to higher loan recoveries and setting a lower contingency reserve than 2003–04. To maintain fairness within the scheme, the loans budget will continue to be allocated to districts to support consistency of outcome for applicants wherever they live.
	The sum of £l million will be retained centrally as a contingency reserve, which, for example will provide additional help to districts facing unexpected and unplanned expenditure.
	Details of individual district budget allocations have been placed in the Library.
	The discretionary social fund budget is cash limited. Budgets are allocated to districts on 1 April each year.
	The gross discretionary SF budget allocated for 2004–05 is £689 million made up of:
	
		
			  
		
		
			 New money (AME) £168.2 million 
			 Forecast loan recovery £520.8 million 
			 This was allocated as follows: 
			 Loans £560 million 
			 Grants £128 million 
			 Contingency reserve £l million 
		
	
	If the forecast for loan recoveries proves to be an underestimate, any additional recoveries can be allocated to districts during the year.
	The contingency reserve is held centrally and allocations made from it reimburse districts for expenditure resulting from a local accident or disaster (eg, flooding).
	Since April 1997, the gross discretionary social fund budget has increased by £221.5 million from £467.5 million to £689 million, an increase of more than 47 per cent.
	Since April 1997, the community care grant budget has increased by £31 million from £97 million to £128 million, an increase of nearly 32 per cent.
	My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be making a number of minor changes to the discretionary social fund, with effect from 5 April 2004. The changes to the fund are minor clarifications of guidance and directions, and, in the main, are consequential to legislative changes being made in respect of other social security benefits.
	Details of the changes have been placed in the Library.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Falklands Islands

Bill Rammell: On 15 and 16 March 2004 the Argentine naval Icebreaker, Almirante Irizar sailed through the Falklands outer conservation zone and the Falklands interim conservation zone. These are areas for which the Falkland Islands Government issues fishing licences. During the time that it was inside these zones, the Argentine vessel was challenging other vessels to identify themselves. While transit of the conservation zones is permissible, the policing of the zones by a foreign vessel contravenes the Falkland Islands exclusive jurisdiction.
	We asked the Argentine Government for an explanation of the vessel's actions. Their response was not satisfactory. We have therefore made a formal protest to the Argentine Government concerning the actions of the Almirante Irizar, underlining the need to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again. This note also reiterated that HMG has no doubts about UK sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
	I have spoken to Falkland Island councillors about this incident. I share their concerns and I have briefed them on our response. I assured them of our continued firm support.